US ADVISORY & COUNSELING NEWSLETTER
17th June, 2022
Dear Students,
So far everything has been a great success thanks to your hard work, and we can just imagine how excited you all are for the long summer break ahead. We would also like to thank all the Advisors and Grade Level Leaders for all the hard work they have put into making Advisory and all Grade Level programs a huge and resounding success. This will be the final Newsletter for this academic year so please do enjoy as you go over some of our highlights.
Cheers!
Tessa John Guerra
Upper School Counselor
Adventure in the great outdoors!
Students participated in various adventure activities. They also brought their musical instruments to play and sing along.
Students were able to enjoy a variety of Relaxation exercises!
They participated in different breathing exercises in nature as well as guided meditations sitting up and lying down.
One of the great benefits of School Retreats is that students get to try new things and explore different interests. This class retreat gave students opportunities to try different activities and develop new interests such as Dance, Meditation and a variety of activities for all tastes.
Students were be able to use this retreat time to relax and learn new skills without the pressure of competition, performance and grades. This also lead them to enhance their self-esteem, build a greater sense of self and self-confidence as well as develop their willingness to try new things, and the tenacity and perseverance to push to their highest potential.
The team at the venue "El Colladito" in partnership with a team of ASM faculty lead by Grade Level Leader Mr. Ronan Dempsey also be contributed to the day’s activities. Some of the benefits include:
- Improving social skills – Students got an opportunity to mingle with other students who were not necessarily their close friends. This taught them how to get along with others, understand different perspectives and forge new relationships.
- Practicing effective communication – Students were given the opportunity to express themselves in both whole and small breakout groups as well as lead those groups. They engaged in discussions about managing themselves, their stress and their workload at school and at home. They also used that time to listen to others deeply and attentively which is a major communication skill.
- Learn about teamwork and leadership – Students were also given a chance to work in teams doing fun activities organized by the “El Colladito” team and, in the process, hone their leadership skills.
The day after their mock exams was intentionally chosen in order for students to enjoy a different side of educational instruction through relaxation.
Students worked very hard during Advisory to come up with their Community Action Projects. They covered a variety of topics. Please see below just a few of them.
ZEN ZONE
Group Members:
Surya Zidan
Lucia Gutierrez
Alexandra Besas
Advisor:
Ben Overstreet
Inclusion Calendar
"We looked at the school and decided that we are a very diverse community with multiple holidays that sometimes are not remembered. We then decided to survey the entire Middle and Upper school and teachers to see what they celebrated and how we could implement that. We created the sample calendar but ideally it would have more to become aware of all the communities in our school."
Pricilla Ortiz, Ava Luers, Victoria Garcia, Helena Fabra and Samuel Ortega O'Hale.
Advisor:
Inma Martinez
Financial Literacy
"Our Community Action Project was a short presentation about basic knowledge of Finance that we High Schoolers need after we graduate. We chose this topic because it is information that we do not learn in school, so we thought that it would be very meaningful. We really enjoyed this project!"
Ana Sophia Millan, Eco Cavero, Alfonso Kurtis de Alzaga, Sofia Vrolijk, Elena Burgaleta, Felipe Crespo, Rodrigo Casanova, Simon Jasper, Tomas Freire, and Max Nasser.
Advisor:
Neil Block
Peer Helping
"The main idea of this "freelancing" initiative is to give access to any kind of tutoring or lessons in the ASM community. Being such an international school, it is important to share knowledge, it is power. Therefore, in ASM Tutoring, any student with talent in an area will be able to sign up as a tutor... At the same time, anyone in the ASM community will be able to look through the tutors' profiles and find one fit for themselves."
Iris Fernandez Sanchez, Sofia Van Donk, Thomas De Carreras Murat, , Jaime Gomez Arreche, Clarissa Cristina Gomez Rodriquez, Tristan Gomez-Zuloaga, Hector Gonzalez Redondo, Javier Hernandez Lopez, Marin Oliver Iglesias and Olivia Sablayrolles.
Advisor:
Fernando Liroz
There's always something to celebrate!!!
Please find below your own copy of the Inclusion Calendar so you will never forget an important holiday or festival in our diverse ASM community.
VERGER - The Vegan Burger
Advisor:
Meghan Perks
Please find out below how to make the best VERGER (Vegan Burger) ever!!!
Raising Awareness on Anxiety and Concentration
" For our advisory CAP project we wanted to make the issues about distractions and anxiety public to the school. Mostly everyone in the school know about this issue but they do not say it in public. We made it public and gave people solutions on how to manage their anxiety/concentration."
Please see below this presentation by Guillermo Martinez and Carlos Weng
Advisor
Jacki Brick
Sunflowers For Ukraine
"At about the time that the war in the Ukraine began, I found an organization called Voices of Children that had video clips of Ukrainian children talking about what was happening to them. I shared the website with my advisory and then they decided they wanted to help.
We spoke about how while donating money is always a way to help, perhaps they could think about something they could do to raise the money besides a bake sale. Doing something that would require a sacrifice or an action. So, they decided to organize a drive in the middle school to make cards to send to the Ukrainian children that are part of the Voices for Children program.
Then they decided to learn how to crochet sunflowers, and sell them to raise money. Even though they gave it a valiant effort, we were not able to crochet enough sunflowers to sell this year. Hopefully next year we will continue to work on the sunflower project."
Jacki Brick
Advisor
Group Members:
Mariam
Blanca
Ines
Alessandra
Special Thanks going out to Lower School STEM Coordinator, Karen Campbell, who joined this project as a Special Contributor. She taught the group members to crochet and paid for the yarn as her contribution to the project.
PLEASE SEE MORE PICS OF THE SUNFLOWERS FOR UKRAINE PROJECT BELOW
Please see the video below of some of the highlights!
WOULD YOU LIKE AN AMAZING, THOUGHT PROVOKING BOOK TO READ THIS SUMMER?
We have the above titles on Tessa's desk so please feel free to pass by to check them out. You can also get one to read all summer long!
We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our most recent graduates.
We wish them all the best in their future endeavors!
We can't end this Newsletter without thanking ASM alumni Will Dowling who was our our Keynote Speaker at our Grade 11 Class Retreat.
We would also like to thank Will for introducing us to the work of his teacher Peter Sonnberg who customized the meditation below for our Juniors. His website has various meditations and is an excellent framework for getting started on a new meditation plan.
THANK YOU FOR COMING TO THE END OF OUR LAST UPPER SCHOOL COUNSELING & ADVISORY NEWSLETTER FOR THIS SCHOOL YEAR.
- Please go over the past newsletters where you will find different study strategies under the sub-heading of Study Skills.
- Then go over all the different professions explored under the sub-heading of Career Guidance.
Email: tessajohn@asmadrid.es
Website: asmadrid.org
Location: American School of Madrid, Calle América, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain
Phone: 34 917401902